Miss Tohru's Dragon Butler

Chapter 2: Meisuke and Introductions

Kobayashi Tohru shifted uncomfortably in her seat as she considered the escapade from the night before. While this Meisuke didn't seem like the dishonest type and her own memory confirmed what the woman had said, it still seemed too outlandish to be believed. After taking a few moments to gather herself, Tohru finally spoke up.

"Sooo..." she began, "You're saying that... I told you to stay at my house?"

Meisuke nodded as she returned her attention to the fridge. "Yeah," she said, "pretty much." She continued to root through the unit with a contented smile.

After watching this for a moment, Tohru finally asked, "um... are you looking for something...?"

"Hm?" Meisuke responded, pausing her search momentarily. "Alcohol, of course."

"Please leave!" Tohru begged.

Meisuke gave a small hum of discontent. "What's wrong, Miss Tohru?"

Tohru fidgeted for a moment under Meisuke's gaze as the dragoness drew a can of beer from the fridge. Tohru sighed inwardly at this; she wasn't even sure that there WAS alcohol in the fridge, and couldn't help but wonder if maybe some magic shenaniganry was responsible. She quickly shook the pesky thoughts away, returning to the matter at hand. "I'm... I'm s-sorry, Meisuke, but..." Tohru faltered. After pausing to take a deep breath, Tohru turned once more to Meisuke and stated, "I'm sorry, but you can't stay here!"

Meisuke cocked her head to the side like a confused puppy, before finally asking, "Why not?"

"Because I can't afford to keep you here!" Tohru blurted before blushing deeply. She wasn't quite certain how much a dragon would eat, or how much space they would need, or anything else about a dragon's needs. She was sure her part-time job and humble apartment couldn't meet those needs, though.

"Tohru..." Meisuke began, but Tohru tore her gaze away from the dragoness's. She couldn't bear to see the pain or disappointment that was sure to be in Meisuke's face. Any second now, Tohru knew, Meisuke would growl or scream or just walk away in disgust. Any second now...

Instead, Tohru found Meisuke's hand on her shoulder. "Tohru..." Meisuke tried again, but the woman still refused to meet her gaze. Tohru heard Meisuke give a small sigh at this, but instead of letting go, Meisuke's grip only tightened. It wasn't painful, however; it was comforting, and gentle, and strangely... warm. She supposed it must be because Meisuke was a dragon.

"Tohru... you don't have to look at me, but I have to ask that you at least listen." Meisuke said. "I just want you to know that I would never expect you to take me in if I wanted you to take care of me. I promised that I would take care of you from now on, not the other way around. I don't care what it takes, or what I'm going to have to do, or how long I'm going to stay here. Because I promised you that I would be Miss Kobayashi's Dragon Helper." Meisuke paused, winking at Tohru, "or maybe I should say, Miss Kobayashi's Dragon Butler?"

Tohru gasped, her face reddening furiously at the now-winking Meisuke's comment. "H-h-how did you know about that!?" She demanded.

Meisuke chuckled. "It was on your phone, of course!"

Tohru paused at this, turning to Meisuke. "Wait," she asked, "how does a dragon know about cell phones?"

Meisuke shrugged, offering her a small smile. "I'm pretty powerful, as far as dragons go, but my REAL strength lies in information." She began to wave her hand over Tohru's phone, and a magical circle appeared as the device lit up. "Whenever I encounter a source of information, I can magically absorb all the information inside it. Which is why I know just about everything about this world thanks to the internet. Aaaand," Meisuke's smile began to stretch as she leaned embarrassingly close to Tohru, "why I know how much you like butlers."

"That explains the suit, I guess." Tohru groaned. She had to admit, the suit looked... nice... on Meisuke. Now she just had to hope that the dragoness wouldn't look in that small, unassuming basket under the couch.

Tohru paused, considering what Meisuke had said. "Well..." she began, "when you put like that... but... erm..." she looked away from Meisuke again, her face flushing red.

Once more, the dragoness's reassuring hand found its way onto Tohru's shoulder as she said, "Trust me, Tohru. Things'll be fine."

A moment passed, and then another, before Tohru finally shrugged.

"Well... if you say that, okay..."

Meisuke smiled before taking a long sip from her beer and taking a seat across the table from Tohru. This would be a good stay.

"Welp," Meisuke said as she stood up, "if I'm going to be your butler, I'd better go have a look at what I'm dealing with here."

Tohru jolted at this. She knew that Meisuke was here to be her butler, but there was a world of difference between knowing that and being ready for Meisuke to clean up after her. Especially if she started doing laundry. Especially especially if she happened across the basket under the couch while doing so.

Resolving to stop the dragoness before dying of embarrassment, Tohru jumped out of her chair, slamming her hands on the table.

Meisuke cocked an eyebrow at this display, asking, "Is everything alright, Tohru?"

Tohru spluttered for a moment, finally blurting, "I-it's fine! Nothing's wrong, I just have to... um... do something! Yeah, something! Something perfectly innocent!" She gave Meisuke an awkward smile and small wave, saying, "I'll be back in a moment. Just, ah, wait here for a sec, okay?"

Tohru awkwardly shuffled out of the room, pausing only to say, "Just pleeeeeease stay here, alright?" and awaiting a gentle nod from Meisuke before leaving the room. Meisuke leaned back in her chair, taking a long, pensive sip of her beer.

"What was that about...?" She wondered.

...

"Uwaaah!" Tohru cried as she began to survey her living room. It was an absolute disaster area, of course; three years of living like a lazy slob will do that to a home. Empty takeout and instant meals littered the room, laundry was arrayed in piles on the ground in order of "clean-ish" to "biohazard", and light novels and knickknacks were scattered in a disorganized heap throughout the room. "It's going to take hours to even begin to straighten this place out!" she muttered in dismay, sighing as she began the Herculean task of sorting through it all.

Tohru began to sort through the various piles on the floor, giving each a sniff before deciding to throw it into a "clean enough" pile on the couch or the "pigs would be embarrassed" pile near the laundry room. She picked up a few of the empty cupmen and cans scattered around the room, sorting them in to the trash can before turning to the assorted junk she had scattered throughout the room. Tohru heaved another sigh. She had no idea how she was going to get this all clean before Meisuke got up to see what was taking so long, and when she did and saw Tohru's living room in the state it was, she would be disgusted! What's more, Tohru felt like she was taking advantage of the dragoness; her home held three year's worth of trash, junk, and neglect, and here Meisuke was, offering to be her butler!

As Tohru was mulling over these unhappy thoughts, however, she felt arms clasp around her waist.

"EEK!" She shrieked at the unexpected touch; Meisuke had evidently entered the room without Tohru knowing, and was now holding the young woman gently. It was the perfect hug, just the right mix of firmness and comfort and... warmth. An incredible amount of heat seemed to be radiating from Meisuke, flowing into Tohru from their touch. She reminded herself that it made sense-again, Meisuke WAS a dragon-but to understand that a dragon, a massive, fire-breathing creature would be overwhelmingly hot and to actually feel it wrapped around her were two very different things. Yet... the heat from Meisuke's touch did not threaten to overcome Tohru. Instead, the dragoness was merely offering warmth, like a spot on a soft bed a cat had just vacated.

As her heart rate began to ramp down, Tohru realized that she had begun to panic while she was cleaning the room. The stress had only increased as she realized how hopeless the task was. There was just no way to get it all cleaned; Tohru felt impotent, as though she couldn't take care of herself. If she couldn't even do that much, then how dare she force Meisuke to pick up the slack for her?

"You don't have to push yourself so hard, you know," Meisuke whispered into Tohru's ear. "Especially not for me."

Tohru jumped out of Meisuke's grip, surprised by the sudden physical contact and the gentle words. Meisuke simply smiled at her, chuckling as Tohru's face turned to a rather bright shade of red.

"Uh... ah! AH!" Was all Tohru could blabber out, covering her eyes to try to escape Meisuke's piercing gaze.

A moment passed, and scraping began to sound throughout the room.

"Honestly, Tohru," she heard Meisuke say, "didn't I just tell you that I would take care of you from now on? It's like I said: you can rely on me."

Tohru lowered her hands, embarrassed and slightly ashamed at Meisuke's words. As she did so, she noticed the changes that had occurred in the room.

"Wha...? What happened...?" Tohru murmured. The room, which was a disaster area just a few moments ago, had become the picture of cleanliness. The trash was gone and clearly sorted into their proper containers, the novels and scattered bits had put into their proper places, and she could hear the gentle humming and thumping of the washing machine in the next room. "Wow... Incredible..." she murmured.

"Tohru..." Meisuke began.

"What is it, Meis-" Tohru jolted to a halt at the hard glare she was being given by the dragoness. "Uwah! What's wrong!?" she cried.

"You," Meisuke began, pointing accusingly at Tohru, "have no clean clothes! None! I searched the whole house, top to bottom, twice! And yet I still didn't find so much as a fresh towel! Don't you know it's unhealthy to wear dirty clothes!?" She scowled at the now fidgeting Tohru.

"I'm sorry."

Meisuke sighed, something she suspected would become a habit around Tohru. She didn't mean to scare the girl half to death, but she clearly needed some adult supervision in her life! "I didn't mean to snap at you, Tohru," Meisuke said apologetically, "but you need to take better care of yourself! What do you do when you run out of clean clothes?"

Tohru nervously tapped her fingers together, saying, "Well... the cafe I work at keeps and washes our uniforms, and I don't really go out much, so I just sorta..." she paused, awkwardly shrugging, "sniff out the cleanest ones, and spray them with air freshener...? But... like, it's not like I do anything outside of work, so it's fine, right...?"

Meisuke allowed an unamused glare to rest upon her master. "No," she declared, "It's absolutely not alright! You should have been taking far better care of yourself up to now!" The dragoness pinched the bridge of her nose, before beginning to rub her temples. "Okay, I'm doing your laundry from now on."

Tohru nodded, saying, "Yeah... okay, that's fair." Meisuke seemed to be about to say something else when the doorbell began to ring throughout the house.

"Ah, it's probably a package delivery or something." Meisuke said. "Would you like me to get it, Tohru, or-?" It suddenly occurred to Meisuke that Tohru was no longer in the room. Meisuke paused for a moment, considering where Tohru had gone, before walking over to the bedding closet in the hall.

"Oh man," she shouted, "Wherever could Tohru have gone, I wonder? Not over here, certainly!" Meisuke began to stamp loudly away, waiting until she was just outside of what she imagined was Tohru's earshot before she snuck back over to the closet. From within which she could hear a relieved sigh. The dragoness smiled, her suspicions confirmed, and flung the door open.

"Uwah!?" Tohru cried as she tumbled out of the now-open closet, bedding collapsing on top of her. "Owie," she said, sitting up to rub her head which she had almost banged on the floor before turning to Meisuke. "How did you find me?"

"My specialty is finding information, remember?" Meisuke said. "Do you really think I couldn't figure out where you had gone or hear you when you were in there?"

"Awww..." Tohru moaned as she stood up. "Okaaaay, I'll get the dooor."

"Seriously?" Meisuke scolded. "You're an adult! Act like it! Running away from the front door like that at your age."

"But people are a paaaaain!" Tohru responded.

"Geez," Meisuke said as they walked to the front door, "I'm a DRAGON, and I'm less of a shut-in than you are! It's just the deliveryman or something!"

Tohru simply hid behind Meisuke as the dragoness opened the door.

"Afternoon!" The deliveryman said as the door was opened for him. "I just need you to sign off on this package!"

Meisuke opened her mouth to speak when Tohru suddenly darted out from behind her, snatching up the package and just as quickly returning to the safety of Meisuke's back. A moment of awkward silence passed before Meisuke signed the deliveryman's clipboard with an apologetic smile and shut the door.

"Tohru..."

"A-ah, yeah, Meisuke?" Tohru responded, fidgeting with the hem of her shirt.

"What was with that display!?" Meisuke shouted at the tensed young woman... who promptly burst into tears.

"People are scary!" Tohru sobbed, and Meisuke could only sigh. She wasn't even beginning to regret making her promise, but she wished she had known her new master was such a neurotic, lazy crybaby. Then again, only a neurotic, lazy crybaby would likely have taken her in at all, so...

"...it's okay."

Tohru flinched at Meisuke's words, but then paused to actually consider them. "It's... okay?" Tohru asked.

Meisuke nodded. "Yeah, as long as you try to learn something from this all. Now, let's have some lunch!"

Tohru smiled. "Yeah!"

...

"Tohru..." Meisuke began, her fingers already firmly grasping the bridge of her nose.

"Yeah, Meisuke?"

"Why is there nothing," Meisuke began, "and I mean NOTHING, in your cupboards except for some clearly unused pots and pans and a couple boxes of instant meals?"

"Eh..." Tohru mumbled, "because that's what I like to eat...?"

"Was that a question or an answer?" Meisuke deadpanned.

"Eh..." Tohru gave an awkward smile, "...both?"

"Alright. When you AREN'T," Meisuke said, pointing accusingly at Tohru, "eating instant meals for dinner, what exactly DO you eat?"

Tohru meekly shrugged. "I... don't?"

"Alright, Tohru, we are getting you some ACTUALLY DECENT food, and I'm cooking for you from now on!" Meisuke paused, thinking for a moment. "I'll make some curry rice or something; just make sure you eat fast or you'll be late for work."

"Huh...?" Tohru turned to the clock on the wall. Now that her head had cleared and she had woken up properly, she could see it clearly. And she did not like what she saw.

"UWAH!" She cried. "I'M GOING TO BE LATE!"

***End of Chapter 2***

A/N: Thanks for reading this so far! I apologize for any problems you've seen with the fic, and will attempt to mitigate them in the coming chapters. Also, in case anyone cares, I'll be trying to update this once a week, probably on Sunday nights; this will be so I can consistently have something out on a regular, "fast" basis without missing a week...though I might occasionally post a surprise early chapter on Wednesdays! Also also, if anyone's wondering, while I will try to mix together elements from both the anime and mange (both of which I've read all the way to where we stand now, save the Elma Spinoff of which I've read only a couple chapters), I will try to be creative in my own way. Which means unique elements or ones from the Kana spinoff might pop up every once in a while. Sorry for the long note; Top Tsun, signing off!